This Week on the Peak

July 26, 2017

This Week on the Peak – Wednesday, July 26, 2017

This Week on the Peak

Mission Peak UU – Fremont, CA

The Home of Liberal Religion in the Tri-Cities and Beyond!

July 26, 2017

Hello Everyone! I’m Jen King and once again this year I will be heading up the team which brings you Mission Peak’s largest fundraiser of the year – the Black & White Gala. The Black & White Gala will be held Saturday, November 4th from 6:00-10:00 pm. This year we will again be enjoying the beautiful space at the Dominican Center at Mission San Jose located just up Washington Blvd from Cole Hall. As usual the Gala will include a boutique, a basket raffle, a live auction, a dessert buffet, and beer & wine.

November may seem far away now, but it will be here before you know it. Here are a few things you can start doing NOW to help this year’s Gala be the best ever:

1) Save the Date!! Put the date on your calendar – November 4th from 6:00-10:00 pm. Invite Friends and Family to put the date on their calendars. We don’t open this event to the general public, but friends and family of MPUUC members and friends are more than welcome.

We’d love to have you on our event team. We work hard, but we also have A LOT of fun and we put on a great event.

3) Start making items that can be sold in the boutique – jewelry, pottery, knitted or crocheted items, cards, stained glass, original art pieces, bookmarks, ornaments, carving, etc.

4) Start thinking about new and interesting items that you can donate to the live auction or let me know what kind of items you’d love to see offered and we’ll try to find someone to do just that. We’ll provide more information about the types of things we’re looking for in September, but for those of you who are new to the Black & White Gala – we auction off services such as theme dinners or jam making lessons or bird watching hikes.

As most of you probably know, we’re working with a deficit budget this year and we’ve got a lot of expenses coming up. The Black & White Gala is a fun way to raise money for Mission Peak while also enriching the community that makes Mission Peak such a special place. It’s not to early to start doing what you can to help us make this year’s event a success.

Thanks!

This Sunday’s Service:

Forward Together – The Third Reconstruction and A Reason to Hope

Last year the UUA named Rev. Barber’s book The Third Reconstruction: Moral Mondays, Fusion Politics, and the Rise of the New Justice Movement as our 2016-17 Common Read. This week’s sermon will give you an overview of the themes of the book and argue that it is even more relevant post-election than it was before. Among other things, Barber can help us understand why we are where we are today and how we can find hope. How do we fit into the long view of history? Find out how we move forward together.

Leading the service will be Allysson McDonald and Worship Associate Barbara Meyers. Music will be provided by Eric Niessner.

“WE ARE ONE” Vigil/Rally

The monthly Tri-City Interfaith Council vigil will be
tomorrow (Thursday, July 27) from
5:00 PM to 6:00 PM at the corner of Walnut and Paseo Padre in Fremont. Bring your “Love Your Neighbor” sign, or an American flag, or a rainbow flag, or any peaceful, compassionate, non-partisan sign that reflects concern. For more information contact Community Minister Barbara Meyers or President Elect Paul K Davis.

A Little Extra Help After the Service on Sundays

After
Sunday service we have volunteers who “takedown’ Cole Hall, which includes putting away the chairs, rolling up the rugs, putting away the aesthetics, and cleaning up toys outside, to name just some of the things they do. It would be a big help to the takedown folks if each person could clean up their own seat – pick up your order of service, carry your hymnal to the cupboard if you are able, and carry your seat cushion to the back row of the section you sit in.

Let’s all work together to help whomever is signed up to do takedown!

Common Read Book Discussion Sign Ups!

Every year the UUA names a Common Read and provides a guide so congregations can have group discussions of the book. We have not had a discussion of the 2016-17 Common Read at Mission Peak as of yet. It is the topic of the sermon on July 30. Already the UUA has announced the Common Read for 2017/18, and they announced not one, but two books worthy of discussion across the Association. A Common Read can build community in our congregation and our movement by giving diverse people a shared experience, shared language, and a basis for deep, meaningful conversations.
Let’s get reading! If 5 or more order a book we can obtain a group discount. Sign up after the services or contact Allysson McDonald allyssonmcdonald@gmail.com to participate in the discussion of one or more of these powerful books this fall:

The Third Reconstruction, by Rev. William J. Barber, offers helpful, practical guidance for engaging with justice movements born in response to local experiences of larger injustices. Drawing on the prophetic traditions of the Jewish and Christian scriptures, while making room for other sources of truth, the book challenges us to ground our justice work in moral dissent, even when there is no reasonable expectation of political success, and to do the hard work of coalition building in a society that is fractured and polarized.

Centering: Navigating Race, Authenticity, and Power in Ministry
, edited by Mitra Rahnema (Skinner House, 2017), centers the stories, analysis, and insights of a number of Unitarian Universalist religious leaders of color as they explore how racial identity is made both visible and invisible in Unitarian Universalist communities.

Daring Democracy: Igniting Power, Meaning, and Connection for the America We Want, by Frances Moore Lappé and Adam Eichen, (Beacon Press, September 2017) lifts up the importance of democracy itself. It examines the anti-democracy movement that led to the Trump presidency, then offers a vision and call to action to save the democracy we thought we had and to take our civic life to a place it has never been.

Save the Date: Niles Flea Market Is Back!

After a great success last summer, we will be making our second appearance at the Niles Flea Market on Saturday, August 26, and Sunday, August 27.

For those not familiar with the event, the Flea Market starts with a giant neighborhood-wide rummage sale on Saturday, followed by the antique fair on Sunday. This annual event draws tens of thousands of people to the Niles area at the end of every August, and will be a great chance to raise some much-needed funds for Mission Peak UU while meeting new people in the community.

To make it a success, we still need your help with the following:

o Prepping the site: Lorna Jaynes and Bruce Cates have generously allowed us the use of their lot in Niles again, but we will need some help to clear the space. Volunteers will be needed for site prep on August 12 and 19, so if you are available for an hour or two on one of these dates, let us know.

o Donations: We will need donations of clean and gently used furniture, household items, clothing, sports and camping equipment, vintage treasures, kids’ items, and more. Please make sure any items you want to donate are in good, clean, usable condition.

Note: We will not be able to accept broken items, expired items (such as car seats), undergarments, VHS tapes, or non-children’s books. Due to space restrictions, we will not be able to store items and will only begin accepting donations the Wednesday before the sale. Items can be delivered to Lisa Newstrom’s house the Wednesday or Thursday before the sale, or (preferably) dropped of at the sale site Friday night or early Saturday morning. If you absolutely cannot deliver your items, let us know and we will try to work something out.

o Help us set up the items in an organized manner for sale. Will likely happen the evening before the sale, or possibly early Saturday morning.

o Help us staff the sale! If we have multiple helpers, the shifts can be short and you’ll have plenty of time to scout out the sales yourself.

o If you have a pickup or large vehicle and/or could assist with transporting unsold items to be donated or disposed of after the sale, please let us know. We are hoping to limit the number of unsold items this year!

o We will need the temporary use of a few pop-up canopies for shade, and a number of folding tables, clothing racks, and clean tarps.

Please contact Lisa Newstrom as soon as possible if you can help with any of the above. LMNewstrom@gmail.com or 607-339-5573.

Fundraiser

Join the MPUUC Community for lunch or dinner at The Counter in Fremont on
Thursday August 17th. Bring in our flyer and 20% of your bill will be donated to MPUUC. Clickhere for flyer.

Mission Peak UU August Monthly Board Meeting

The Mission Peak UU Board will meet Tuesday evening, August 15 at Michealle Havenhill
‘s home at
7:00 p.m.

Members of Mission Peak UU are welcome to attend. For a copy of the agenda, please contact President Michealle Havenhill atpresident@mpuuc.org.